<p>The common app prompt says 1-2 paragraphs, but I feel that my essay would lose a lot of its effectiveness if I jumble everything into 2 giant paragraphs. It's a little less than 500 words, so I think I'm fine there since I've heard of people using over 700 words for this essay. Is it okay if I use more than two paragraphs if my essay's less than a page of writing?</p>
<p>Also, would anyone (preferably Duke students) mind reading it? Thanks!</p>
<p>Honeslty, stick to the word limit. I’m sure you can figure a way out of shortening your statement. You don’t want to be that one (of many probably) applicant that couldn’t follow simple instructions.
I know it’s never easy to have a word limit, but I remember that I dramatically shortened mine and was still accepted. Best of luck.</p>
<p>If its a good essay, the readers will not care about the word length. However, keep to the paragraph limit because it shows that you actually follow directions</p>
<p>The supplemental essay, “Why Duke”, is actually more of a statement that should be succinct. Too wordy and you’ll lose the impact the statement needs to convey.</p>
<p>The more you say, the less the reader understands what your main focus is. If you read the prompt carefully it says: “**Is **there **something **in particular at Duke that attracts you?” → Singular.
Don’t talk too much about many things.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the replies everyone. I looked this up, and I saw several people say that the 1-2 paragraph “limit” is just a rough guideline to make sure that people don’t write a novel-sized essay, and that anything under a page should be fine. My essay is currently 460 words, 5 paragraphs (some are small), and around 3/4 of a page. In the essay I have 3 “reasons” that I want to attend Duke. The thing is, I’m using a very unconventional approach to answering the prompt, and if I condense some paragraphs to meet the limit, it’ll seriously detract from its effectiveness as a whole. Does anyone want to read it by the way?</p>